Kanemaru Shinji
Kanemaru Shinji is a student of Seidou High School. Kanemaru lives in the dorms and is the roommate of Seto Takuma. He is a third baseman of the Seidou High School Baseball Team. Appearance Kanemaru has blonde cropped hair and brown eyes. He has distinctive features and often knits his eyebrows, which is why he looks grumpy most of the time. Character He is self-confident and often behaves in a somewhat arrogant manner. Nevertheless his class- and teammates see him literally as the epitome of a 'big brother'. He looks out for everyone, as shown in the show when he is watching over Sawamura. During the series it's stated multiple times that he is good at taking care of others. Kanemaru isn't the type to be openly bitter about things when it comes to his place on the baseball team. At the beginning of the series, when Kanemaru wasn't a first string player, he even encouraged his teammates to do well in his place. Kanemaru evolves to the so-called leader of the first years. Act I Before the Fall Tournament starts, Kanemaru made it to the 1st string but did not get to play the first match. Committed to not get left behind by his fellow batch mates, Kanemaru makes good appeal for himself in batting practice by hitting Furuya's fastball. He made his high school debut in the 2nd match against Nanamori High where he hits a 3 runs RBI after Toujou sets the stage for him by drawing a WalkS2 - Episode 10. Kanemaru also played in the Semi-Final match against Seikou as a starting player. During one of the tight situations in the 8th inning, Kanemaru failed to make a catch to 3rd base and the error allowed a runner to make it safely to 1st. Despite making the error, he was cheered on by Sawamura who was getting tensed himself. Act II He took it upon himself to take care after the new first years. As strict as he naturally is, Sawamura calls him "supervisor from hell", but everyone is pleased of how smoothly he can pep talk the kouhais. He has became more of a regular starting player for the 3rd base position but often bats in the bottom of the lineup. He has experienced somewhat of a slump since Spring and has been recording very few hits while getting struck out a lot in games.Act II - Chapter 79 Realizing that he is at risk of being laid off of the starting position, Kanemaru has since started to work hard on his batting in order to improve his batting. After immense training and hardwork during the off season during practice games as well as the summer training camp, Kanemaru keeps his spot on the first string for the summer tournament and is given the number 5 jersey. This makes him immensely happy as he is shown to be thinking about his single numbered jersey in class, and is jealous of the attention Sawamura is getting from their classmates after the Jersey numbers are announced. He yearns for someone to also ask him about his spot on the team so he can happily talk about it. Relationships with other characters Sawamura Eijun At the beginning of the series, Kanemaru didn’t recognise Sawamura as a member of the team. He disliked him, thinking he is all talk, but he eventually acknowledges him. As a classmate, Kanemaru is the one helping Sawamura with his studies to which Sawamura is grateful for, especially after he passed the final exams before the start of the Summer Tournament. As a teammate, Kanemaru often stands in the batters box when Sawamura practice his pitches. He voluntarily helped out and thus was a great help when Sawamura suffered from the yips. He is rather strict during study- and training sessions and doesn't sugarcoat his words, because he wants Sawamura to discover his problems and mistakes as fast and simply as possible and keep on improving. In Act II we see the relationship between the two continue to develop as Kanemaru is one of the many players on field who show support for Sawamura whether it be through smart remarks, hits similar to Kuromochi's or celebrating with Sawamura when his pitches are in top form. We also see that Kanemaru is the first person Sawamura's reports to when he and Okumura first have a falling out. Toujou Hideaki In junior high, Kanemaru was on the same baseball team as Tojou. The two appear to get along well. Toujou seems to like giving impromptu nicknames to Kanemaru, like "the party boy is showing up"Act I - Chapter 399 during their match against Yakushi. To help with Kanemaru's batting practice, Toujou would only pitches fastball to difficult locations as per Kanemaru's request when the later takes swing in the batting cage. When Toujou made his comeback as a pitcher in a practice match against Asari High in their second year, Kanemaru seemed to celebrate this fact by hitting a two-runs RBI. Takigawa Chris Yuu Kanemaru was Chris's roommate. He initially took on the responsibility of helping Chris with assuring that Sawamura kept his grades up so that he could remain on the team since he was in the same class as Sawamura. Later he began assisting Chris by standing in as batter for the battery's pitching practice sessions particularly after Sawamura fell victim to the yips and a stand-in batter was necessary to get him confident with pitching to the inside again. Takatsu Hiroomi Takatsu is one of Kanemaru's year mate. He and Kanemaru appear to have a hostile relationship with one another. As noted by Toujou, the two seem to never get along.Act II - Chapter 60 Kanemaru does seem to have genuine care for Takatsu when the former gives him congratulations for making the first string as well as warning him to not be too greedy with his position choices. Takatsu, however, tends to ignore Kanemaru's corners for him. Skills After getting into the first string, Kanemaru wants to remain as a first string player, and thus never slacks off in practice. He’s the type of person that knows that practice doesn't lie. Kanemaru is very good with batting fastballs, even as strong as Furuya's, and seems to have good slugging power. Kanemaru can easily score long hits to drive in runner or HR on a fastball, however, his success with breaking pitches have been poor. He looks to be good in clutch situations; however, his actual results are not as impressive as his skills suggests. In his 2nd year, Kanemaru struggles to find consistency with his batting as he has very low contact rate; for instance, he got only 2 hits and 3 strike-outs over 10 at bats. This is a big factor why Kanemaru has not been consistently on starting lineup. Although he may be prone to commit error in high pressure situation in his first year, Kanemaru is usually very solid when he defends at 3rd base. Player Statistics This data is based on the official guidebook, it will only be changed if there is an official update! Trivia *Favorite Food: Cheeseburger *Favorite Subject: English *He has respect for his father. *He was the roommate of Chris Yu Takigawa. *His hobby is music appreciation (lots of western music because of his father’s influence). *His favorite artists are "The Strokes" and "The Libertines". *His first official match is the match against Nanamori Gakuen (2nd round of of the Fall Tokyo Regional). Act I - Chapter 261 *He calls Sawamura "Wamura". Act I - Chapter 308 *In his second year he is in the same class as Sawamura Eijun, Furuya Satoru, and Yoshikawa Haruno.Act II - Chapter 11 *His first hit, when he was on the starting lineup for the first time, was also his very first RBI. *According to Kawakami he is good at taking care of others. Name Etymology *Kanemaru (金丸) - Money Circle *Shinji (信二) - Faithful Second (son) Quotes *"You aren't just the representative for the baseball club. You're a representative for all of us first-years." ''- to Sawamura'' Act I - Chapter 59 *"He threw without hestitation. Right toward the coach's chest. What kind of heart does he have?" ''- about Sawamura''Act I - Chapter 81 *"Deal with it, like a man!" about Sawamura Act I - Chapter 224 *"Read faster, cause it's my turn to borrow it next. And your face has spoilers all over it!!" ''- to Sawamura'' Act I - Chapter 258 *"Sadly I'm used to being hit, so I'm not scared."'' - about Sawamura's pitching'' *"You are such a man, Kanemaru." ''- Kariba'' *"First and foremost, you’re stupid. You’re too emotional. Your pitch is slow. Your control isn’t very good yet. You try to hide it by sounding excited. You can’t do pick-offs. You get too carried away in class." ''- to Sawamura'' Act I - Chapter 298 *"Kanemaru, hear me out!" - "It's all you fault." - "But I didn't say anything yet!"Act II - Chapter 25 *"Finally a kouhai in my room as well . . . I've been so waiting for this~ fufufu" *"Lately, we've been having an influx of third baseman wannabes... I hate for people to think that everyone and their mother can play this position." Gallery Kanemarushinji.png|Kanemaru Shinji Kanemaru.cheering.png|Kanemaru cheering kanemaru.batting.png|Kanemaru practices with EijunAct I - Chapter 224 References Navigation Category:Male Characters Category:Seidou High School Category:Characters Category:2nd Year High School Category:Third Baseman Category:Players